On December 24, 1929 President Herbert Hoover and his wife Lou were hosting a holiday party, including the children of the President's aides and friends. In the hallway the Marine Band played Christmas songs. The President was enjoying the festivities when Ike Hoover, the White House usher, came into the room and whispered in the president’s ear. The president and his secretaries were needed immediately. Rarely has a crisis so immediately required the attention of the chief executive.
An Olympic medal event only since 1998 you might think that curling is a relatively new sport apparently invented in Canada. And, of course, neither is true. The sport dates back at least to the 16th century, and comes from perhaps a surprising place.
During the later half of the nineteenth century numerous attempts were made to assassinate Tsar Alexander II of Russia. Killing the Tsar, however, turned out to be no easy task.
The St Louis World’s Fair, officially known as the Louisiana Purchase Expedition, was an enormous event, with more than 60 countries and 43 states maintaining exhibition spaces for nearly twenty million visitors. In addition to the many exhibitions, a variety of private enterprises set up camp near the fair in the hopes of making money off the guaranteed audience. Some of those ideas worked better than others, but few among them went as ridiculously badly as the attempt to put on a Spanish-Style bullfight.